Siminilayi Fubara, the shrill-whining governor of Rivers, particularly when baying under pressure, reminds one so much of the tortoise in the Yoruba folktale.
Tortoise announced he was going on a trip. When would you return? He deadpanned: when I’m disgraced!
Ola Rotimi, in Kurunmi, that Yoruba historical tragedy, used the tortoise parallel to paint the excesses of Kurunmi, lord of Ijaye and Aare Ona Kakanfo of the Oyo Empire.
Kurunmi perished, ousted by the invading Ibadan forces, losing his seven sons in battle — and his Ijaye fiefdom to boot.
No matter his grouse with his emperor, Alaafin Adelu, Kurunmi should have been less inflexible. True, by extant tradition, Adelu, the Aremo (firstborn of the Alaafin) should have died with his father, not succeed him. But Atiba had changed that tradition, thus clearing Adelu’s path from forced death, to royal succession.
But Kurunmi balked at that new order. He defied his new emperor, just because he felt he had the lethal force to prevail. When the formidable Ibadan army stormed Ijaye, after all entente had failed, the playwright, Ola Rotimi, deemed Kurunmi’s intransigence a wrong tactic to press a right cause — hence the tortoise’s parallel.
Alaafin Adelu needed to consolidate his hold on power. Ibadan scoffed at any rival power, which Ijaye was. In that high-power convergence of interests, Kurunmi was toast, though too deluded to know! The rest, as they say, is history.
So, are Fubara’s causes, against Nyesom Wike, the abrasive guy that loves to war and brawl to wear down his foes, wrong or right? Besides, which of the two camps kisses naked danger, though is too far gone to realize it?
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That would depend on where you stand on the Wike-Fubara divide — just too much sentiments in the air to correctly track anything!
But Governor Fubara isn’t exactly an Ijaw equivalent of Kurunmi — heady, intrepid and rumbling. Wike, his arch (tor)mentor, and now FCT minister, fits more into that profile.
Still, Fubara could whine, kick, bite and swear! As Kurunmi, he shares a penchant for reckless excesses, which bait avoidable ruin. That explains his latest judicial jam — a thundering double defeat that was hardly a surprise.
Fubara, as executive basket mouth, is perhaps the only governor in today’s Nigeria that would insult a high court judge for doing his job, trash-talk the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), laying grievous allegations at his feet, and call his mentor-turned-arch tormentor names, just to press his democratic right to white rage!
But no tears for Wike — the Sim insults are majestic Karma at work! Wike too, no less, had scalded, bruised and verbally bombed Rotimi Amaechi, his ex-boss and benefactor.
Still, while Fubara blows hot, he easily forgets that common sense — and survival instinct — impose on him the imperative to make friends (and not talk up powerful foes), just in case you need some right voices, in right quarters, when the chips are down. Not Fubara! He brawls as if there would be no tomorrow!
Now, that dreary “tomorrow” is here. The governor, buried by own rashness, is sapped by cold law — the twin-nullity of his budget (for two years’ running!) and the council poll he forced, abusing and traducing about everyone in view!
He would cut his loss and make a dash for some negotiated peace? No way! From his post-verdict antics, Fubara seems digging deeper and deeper! Poor Rivers!
Still, how long, for instance, did he figure he would continue dealing with his glorious “simple minority” of four, in the Rivers House of Assembly of 32, and he wouldn’t get roasted, with him even providing the fuel? How long?
Should push come to shove, Fubara could be toast!
Should the Rivers House go full blast for impeachment, only a miracle would save Fubara. How could anyone be elected governor, and yet not know spending public money, without parliamentary appropriation, is democracy’s most grievous crime, only next to treason?
In the Rivers’ tragic burlesque, even the state’s Attorney-General, who bears the suffix of SAN — the learned silk, Nigeria’s highest professional ranking of lawyers — passed through a four-man screening, in a 32-member Rivers Assembly! If gold rusts, what would iron do?
Pray, how could such a crippled appointee advise the governor against governance outlawry, which the Supreme Court utterly flayed in its February 28 verdict that brought Fubara down to earth? It’s certainly not the best of times for the embattled governor!
But it’s neither for the Wike camp, with its post-verdict unbridled triumphalism; and a confetti of rash orders to further bludgeon the dust-biting Fubara and co.
Again, for Fubara, no tears from here! He should have known what’s coming for him, with such executive brigandage he had allowed himself to be goaded into.
Again here, the Supreme Court referenced his gung-ho demolition of the House of Assembly, a rash act tantamount to, as the apex court put it, cancelling democracy in the state!
Still, while the Wike camp have the infantile Fubara exactly where they want him, any rash move from their own end could earn them defeat from the jaw of victory!
That’s the thing, though. It need not be a zero sum game. But Rivers politics would be nothing, if not zero-sum — either with Amaechi versus Wike; or this Wike/Fubara row.
So, though the Supreme Court verdict has been humbling — if not crushing for Fubara: and just as well — it could offer a new re-set that gifts the Rivers folks a relief.
Law is cold. It already leaves Fubara for dead. But emotive politics is as hot as clinical law is frigid and cold. Fubara could have earned his impeachment — if it came — by own reckless executive follies and foibles.
Still, everyone knows the beginning of invoking an impeachment. But hardly anyone knows how it would pan out. Which is why both sides must take the judgment as welcome shock therapy. The Rivers APC, calling for Fubara’s resignation in 48 hours or be impeached, should perish that reckless thought!
Also, the so-called Ijaw “youths”, threatening Armageddon on Fubara’s account, should chill. That’s as infantile as Fubara’s approach to governance.
It doesn’t paint the Ijaw in good light. It’s only the dumb that resort to violence — of which no one has a monopoly — because they can’t think through a challenge. The Ijaw are far too illustrious and far smarter than that.
Besides, they should have learnt from the Goodluck Jonathan debacle. Threat and thunder didn’t fetch President Jonathan a second term any more than it would save Fubara from the political guillotine, via an impeachment well-earned.
But with mutual caution, it need not go to that dire extreme.
Which is why the Wike side too must work toward peace with dignity. Even if they loathe Fubara as a “traitor”, they should honour the office of the governor.
Incidentally, all these would have been averted, had Fubara heeded the presidential peace framework of re-submitting his budget to the legit Assembly, but no!
Let both parties return to that framework. Rivers deserves peace and development, not conflict without end, among its political warlords. Enough is enough!
